This is a possible evolution of the Wandering Albatross about 50 million years from now, it is named the plateau Albatross, which reflects the habitat that the Albatross lives in. It retains many of the characteristics from the Wandering Albatross, however, in order to survive in the environment that it now lives in, there are some important physical and behavior changes to the plateau Albatross.
Scientific Classification Table
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Aves
Order
Procellariiformes
Family
Iugomedeidae
Genus
Iugomedea
Species
Iugomedea patella
Habitat
The world that the plateau Albatross is going to live in is a wildly different habitat that faces the Wandering Albatross in the present times. 50 million years into the future, Australia has collided with South-East Asia, a result of the Australian tectonic plate's continued movement to the north from millions of years ago. As the tectonic plates continued to push against each other, they compress the rock from the landmasses and push it skywards. The result of all this is that a large plateau surrounded by mountains ranges up to 2000 km in length , now dominates much of Northern Australia, along with much of South-east Asia.
The climate up in the plateau is cold, dry and arid. There is very little rainfall in the plateau, this is due to the rainshadow effect imposed by the mountains surrounding the plateau, any winds that contain moisture on the seaward side of the mountain drops the moisture as they rise up. The high altitude of the plateau means that it is constantly cold year-round, despite the average temperature of the earth is a few degrees warmer than in the present, there is snow on the mountains in a year-round basis. The inhospitability of the landscape means that "traditional" large apex predators, such as the African Lion , will not evolve or survive, leaving the niche empty to other animals.
The Plateau Albatross is located in the mountain ranges where Australia and Papua New Guinea collided (see Fig.2), it has moved to a much more northern latitude. Similar to its modern counterpart, the Plateau Albatross spends most of its life in flight, landing on the ground only to breed and feed chicks, unlike the Wandering Albatross, the Plateau Albatross flies over plateaus, indeed, due to the high altitudes of coastal mountain ranges, a plateau Albatross may not see the Ocean once in its considerably long lifetime (30+ years). The plateau Albatross is considerably smaller than the Wandering Albatross, with Adults weighing as much as 9kg, the wing span of the plateau Albatross has changed very little however, still reaching a maximum of about 3m from wingtip to wingtip, this is crucial to soaring on the thin air at high altitudes.
The plateau Albatross builds nests and live in the snow-covered mountain ranges surrounding the valley, the mountains can reach up to 8000m and have year-round snow coverage, up in the mountains, there are no predators that can threaten the plateau Albatross, but similarly there is very little food in the mountains. So in order to forage for food, the Albatross will have to fly to the plateau below. The land there is covered with tundra plants, permafrost restricting root growth to a few feet, insects live above and under ground, searching for roots and grasses that can be eaten. They , in turn, are eaten by small animals adapted to the cold climate here. The small animals are the prey of the Plateau Albatross, as well as small predators that roam the cold plateau, which may be a direct descendant to the Tasmanian Devil. With no predators in this habitat, the Plateau Albatross emerges as the top of the food chain, as the apex predator of this ecological web, it filled in positions that were vacated by the Raptors and Eagles of the modern day era.
Figure 3: The world in 50 million years time
Adaptations
Physical Adaptation 1:
One physical adaptation that the plateau Albatross has evolved over time in response to the plateau environment is that the feathers and skin of the bird have now been turned into a metallic shade of blue. This was a response to the potentially fatal UV radiation coming from the sun in the high altitudes of the plateaus, with the thin air providing little protection against the ultraviolet light. The metallic blue shade helps to reflect ultraviolet light away from the bird. Complimenting this ability, the plateau Albatross can also see in ultraviolet light, in this way, Females can identify Males through their unique patterns, which can be seen only in ultraviolet light, this is essential, as the plateau will be only able to support low densities of plateau Albatrosses, relying on sound to finding others is not going to be feasible. One environmental pressure that gave rise to this was that, as the landscape changed over time, the Albatross needed to develop a system to prevent harm from the UV rays at high Altitudes, therefore changing their color to reflect the UV Light.
Physical Adaptation 2:
Another physical adaptation that was evolved by the plateau albatross was the addition of feathered legs, that could be deployed as a second set of wings during flight. One reason for this evolution could be the fact that the air on the high plateaus are much thinner than at sea-level, therefore requiring a much larger surface area of the wings to provide the same amount of lift on them. Another explanation for the evolution of feathered legs is that they provide flexibility in flight. While long, narrow wings enable a bird to soar for long distances by minimizing drag, they provide little low-speed manoeuvrbility, short, broad wings provide low-speed manoeuvrability, but will be not favorable for long distance, high speed flight, due to higher frictional drag. WIth the evolution of the feathered legs, the plateau Albatross gets the best of both worlds, using the long, narrow wing for long distance glides through the valley to search for food, and extending the feathered leg as a second wing to improve manoeuvrability at low speeds for dives. One environmental pressure that could have given rise to this was when the Albatross needed maneuverability in order to catch prey, but stilled have a need for long distance flights to search for the food.
Behavior Adaptation 1:
A behavior adaptation that the plateau Albatross has acquired is that it has no particular mating periods, which means that the plateau Albatross can mate all year round. This is because the plateau can only support a relatively low density of albatrosses, in normal situations mating other plateau Albatrosses is very rare, therefore, in order to prevent the gene pool from stagnating due to inbreeding and genetic weaknesses. Therefore, an albatross must be ready to breed at any time, this is linked to a physiological adaptation that will be elaborated on below. The environmental pressure that gave rise to this may be the harsh environment and the inhospitably of the plateau, the plateau Albatross, must continue its lineage as a species without making the gene pool vulnerable to disease, add to that there is no significant variation of climate during the year that may favor breeding chicks, this means that it is better for all-year mating periods.
Behavior Adaptation 2:
Another behavior Adaptation by the plateau Albatross was that it is more accustomed to actively hunting and diving prey than its modern day counterpart, similar to what a bird of prey does in the present day. This is a large change from the nature of the Wandering Albatross, which does equal parts of scavenging and hunting. The change in habit to a more hunting - based lifestyle may have been developed simultaneously with the physical adaptation of the winged leg, as it gave the Albatross the low-speed maneuverability and the diving abilities to make pursuing and hunting the small, agile prey in the Plateaus possible. Another possibility is that, in the open spaces of the ocean, carrion of large prey is more easily available with the presence of large oceanic predators such as the Shark and the Orca, in addition to the schools of fish that can be tracked and pursued continuously in the open seas for days at a time, the Plateau Albatross has to live on smaller and more agile prey, so it had to be more adapted at hunting for prey. The environmental pressure for this adaptation may have arisen from the change in habitat from islands in the middle of the ocean to the highland plateaus, small, agile animals, highly specialized for the plateau, gradually became more abundant, the Albatross had to develop a strategy in order to hunt these animals.
Physiological Adaptation
A Physiological Adaptation that the plateau Albatross has evolved is that after mating, the females of the species can place the fertilized embryo in a suspension, before they are eventually developed into an egg and hatched in time for the start of the brief summer, when it is easiest to raise chicks. This means that the chicks of a plateau albatross come from many paternal lineages, this help to aid in diversifying genes. This is extremely important in the plateau environment, because of the relatively low density of plateau albatrosses in a given area and the large distances between potential mating partners, plateau Albatrosses mate infrequently, thin population like these are prone to inbreeding and genetic weaknesses it brings. Delaying implantation of embryo helps to counter this problem by ensuring that a litter of chicks will almost certainly have different lineages, diversifying the gene pool. The environmental pressure that gives rise to this is the need for the gene pool of the Plateau Albatross to remain diversified, even with the inevitable mating between cousins that will come with low densities of population and infrequent mating.
Scientific Classification Table
Habitat
The world that the plateau Albatross is going to live in is a wildly different habitat that faces the Wandering Albatross in the present times. 50 million years into the future, Australia has collided with South-East Asia, a result of the Australian tectonic plate's continued movement to the north from millions of years ago. As the tectonic plates continued to push against each other, they compress the rock from the landmasses and push it skywards. The result of all this is that a large plateau surrounded by mountains ranges up to 2000 km in length , now dominates much of Northern Australia, along with much of South-east Asia.
The climate up in the plateau is cold, dry and arid. There is very little rainfall in the plateau, this is due to the rainshadow effect imposed by the mountains surrounding the plateau, any winds that contain moisture on the seaward side of the mountain drops the moisture as they rise up. The high altitude of the plateau means that it is constantly cold year-round, despite the average temperature of the earth is a few degrees warmer than in the present, there is snow on the mountains in a year-round basis. The inhospitability of the landscape means that "traditional" large apex predators, such as the African Lion , will not evolve or survive, leaving the niche empty to other animals.
The Plateau Albatross is located in the mountain ranges where Australia and Papua New Guinea collided (see Fig.2), it has moved to a much more northern latitude. Similar to its modern counterpart, the Plateau Albatross spends most of its life in flight, landing on the ground only to breed and feed chicks, unlike the Wandering Albatross, the Plateau Albatross flies over plateaus, indeed, due to the high altitudes of coastal mountain ranges, a plateau Albatross may not see the Ocean once in its considerably long lifetime (30+ years). The plateau Albatross is considerably smaller than the Wandering Albatross, with Adults weighing as much as 9kg, the wing span of the plateau Albatross has changed very little however, still reaching a maximum of about 3m from wingtip to wingtip, this is crucial to soaring on the thin air at high altitudes.
The plateau Albatross builds nests and live in the snow-covered mountain ranges surrounding the valley, the mountains can reach up to 8000m and have year-round snow coverage, up in the mountains, there are no predators that can threaten the plateau Albatross, but similarly there is very little food in the mountains. So in order to forage for food, the Albatross will have to fly to the plateau below. The land there is covered with tundra plants, permafrost restricting root growth to a few feet, insects live above and under ground, searching for roots and grasses that can be eaten. They , in turn, are eaten by small animals adapted to the cold climate here. The small animals are the prey of the Plateau Albatross, as well as small predators that roam the cold plateau, which may be a direct descendant to the Tasmanian Devil. With no predators in this habitat, the Plateau Albatross emerges as the top of the food chain, as the apex predator of this ecological web, it filled in positions that were vacated by the Raptors and Eagles of the modern day era.
Adaptations
Physical Adaptation 1:
One physical adaptation that the plateau Albatross has evolved over time in response to the plateau environment is that the feathers and skin of the bird have now been turned into a metallic shade of blue. This was a response to the potentially fatal UV radiation coming from the sun in the high altitudes of the plateaus, with the thin air providing little protection against the ultraviolet light. The metallic blue shade helps to reflect ultraviolet light away from the bird. Complimenting this ability, the plateau Albatross can also see in ultraviolet light, in this way, Females can identify Males through their unique patterns, which can be seen only in ultraviolet light, this is essential, as the plateau will be only able to support low densities of plateau Albatrosses, relying on sound to finding others is not going to be feasible. One environmental pressure that gave rise to this was that, as the landscape changed over time, the Albatross needed to develop a system to prevent harm from the UV rays at high Altitudes, therefore changing their color to reflect the UV Light.
Physical Adaptation 2:
Another physical adaptation that was evolved by the plateau albatross was the addition of feathered legs, that could be deployed as a second set of wings during flight. One reason for this evolution could be the fact that the air on the high plateaus are much thinner than at sea-level, therefore requiring a much larger surface area of the wings to provide the same amount of lift on them. Another explanation for the evolution of feathered legs is that they provide flexibility in flight. While long, narrow wings enable a bird to soar for long distances by minimizing drag, they provide little low-speed manoeuvrbility, short, broad wings provide low-speed manoeuvrability, but will be not favorable for long distance, high speed flight, due to higher frictional drag. WIth the evolution of the feathered legs, the plateau Albatross gets the best of both worlds, using the long, narrow wing for long distance glides through the valley to search for food, and extending the feathered leg as a second wing to improve manoeuvrability at low speeds for dives. One environmental pressure that could have given rise to this was when the Albatross needed maneuverability in order to catch prey, but stilled have a need for long distance flights to search for the food.
Behavior Adaptation 1:
A behavior adaptation that the plateau Albatross has acquired is that it has no particular mating periods, which means that the plateau Albatross can mate all year round. This is because the plateau can only support a relatively low density of albatrosses, in normal situations mating other plateau Albatrosses is very rare, therefore, in order to prevent the gene pool from stagnating due to inbreeding and genetic weaknesses. Therefore, an albatross must be ready to breed at any time, this is linked to a physiological adaptation that will be elaborated on below. The environmental pressure that gave rise to this may be the harsh environment and the inhospitably of the plateau, the plateau Albatross, must continue its lineage as a species without making the gene pool vulnerable to disease, add to that there is no significant variation of climate during the year that may favor breeding chicks, this means that it is better for all-year mating periods.
Behavior Adaptation 2:
Another behavior Adaptation by the plateau Albatross was that it is more accustomed to actively hunting and diving prey than its modern day counterpart, similar to what a bird of prey does in the present day. This is a large change from the nature of the Wandering Albatross, which does equal parts of scavenging and hunting. The change in habit to a more hunting - based lifestyle may have been developed simultaneously with the physical adaptation of the winged leg, as it gave the Albatross the low-speed maneuverability and the diving abilities to make pursuing and hunting the small, agile prey in the Plateaus possible. Another possibility is that, in the open spaces of the ocean, carrion of large prey is more easily available with the presence of large oceanic predators such as the Shark and the Orca, in addition to the schools of fish that can be tracked and pursued continuously in the open seas for days at a time, the Plateau Albatross has to live on smaller and more agile prey, so it had to be more adapted at hunting for prey. The environmental pressure for this adaptation may have arisen from the change in habitat from islands in the middle of the ocean to the highland plateaus, small, agile animals, highly specialized for the plateau, gradually became more abundant, the Albatross had to develop a strategy in order to hunt these animals.
Physiological Adaptation
A Physiological Adaptation that the plateau Albatross has evolved is that after mating, the females of the species can place the fertilized embryo in a suspension, before they are eventually developed into an egg and hatched in time for the start of the brief summer, when it is easiest to raise chicks. This means that the chicks of a plateau albatross come from many paternal lineages, this help to aid in diversifying genes. This is extremely important in the plateau environment, because of the relatively low density of plateau albatrosses in a given area and the large distances between potential mating partners, plateau Albatrosses mate infrequently, thin population like these are prone to inbreeding and genetic weaknesses it brings. Delaying implantation of embryo helps to counter this problem by ensuring that a litter of chicks will almost certainly have different lineages, diversifying the gene pool. The environmental pressure that gives rise to this is the need for the gene pool of the Plateau Albatross to remain diversified, even with the inevitable mating between cousins that will come with low densities of population and infrequent mating.
Links
Wandering Albatross
References
Rose, S. (2010, March). Future plate tectonics. Retrieved from http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/03/future-plate-tectonics.html
Consequences of plate tectonics. (2001). Retrieved from http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/earth/consequences.html
Supkis, E.S. (2007). Earth news:tectonic plate movements in the far future. Retrieved from http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/earth_news/2007/01/tectonic_plate_.html